HEE-licopter

[Anne Gilbert]

Dale:


> Last night was a big town planning board meeting for Princeton Airport.
It
> had to do with the proximity of a helicopter hanger to our neighborhood,
and
> the lawyer for the airport, to my amazement, refered to them as
HEE-licopters.
>  I see that Websters 10th lists that as an alternative pronunciation, and
it
> seems that in the dim memories of my youth I may have heard it once
before,
> but here in NJ I'd have to say this is really, really rare.  It was one of
those
> things where I noticed many people in the audience turning to their
neighbors
> and whispering, "hee-licopter?"    I think it actually hurt his case at
some
> subconscious level.

I think "hee-licopter" must have been a more common pronunciation before,
say, 1950 or 1960.  My mother, who spent a fair amount of her growing up
years in the Northeast, routinely said "heelicopter"(and tried to correct
*my* pronunciation of same), even when most people I knew, including my
father, said "hellicopter".  But like you, I haven't heard "heelicopter" for
years, at least not out here in Seattle.
Anne G